Psychosocial Correlates of Physical Activity in Children-A Study of Relationships When Children Have Similar Opportunities to Be Active

Abstract

Children's daily physical activity patterns are influenced by many factors outside of their immediate control (e.g., school, parents' availability, time allowed outdoors). Because all children do not have an equal opportunity to participate in physical activity, investigating the relationship of psychosocial variables and actual voluntary activity has been problematic. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among psychosocial correlates and physical activity levels when children have an equal and optimal opportunity to be active. Participants were 25 children (ages 10-12) who participated in a summer fitness camp. The structured and repeated nature of the camp provided a unique opportunity to study variability in children's activity patterns over an extended period of time. Participants completed Harter's Perceived Athletic Competence Scale, the Children's Attraction to Physical Activity Scale, and the Children and Youth Physical Self-Perception Profile during the first 2 weeks of the camp. They wore an accelerometry-based activity monitor for 3 subsequent weeks. Physical activity was evaluated by computing T scores for their activity levels for distinct time periods and then averaging these T scores across the 3 weeks. Correlations between the activity levels and the Perceived Athletic Competence Scale were high for all 3 weeks (mean r = .72); however, correlations were consistently weak with the other correlate measures. The average pairwise correlation for the physical activity scores across the 3 weeks of the camp was high (r = .72), indicating that some children seek out ways to be active whereas others consistently choose to be less active. The consistently strong correlations with the Perceived Athletic Competence construct suggest that this may be an important mediator of children's physical activity behavior.